Monitors Guide

ViewSonic VX2235wm Review

Welcome Back!

It's been a long time since we've done a review on monitors here and while we have been doing reviews via our First Looks section, it feels as though we've come home at last. If you've been peeking in our monitor section, you'll probably feel like you were in a time warp due to the dates of our last entry and we hope this will be the first of many more reviews to come.

Technology wise, we have seen a definitive increase in the desktop real estate space as we move on to larger and wider display panels while at the same time progressing with better response times and brightness/contrast ratios. With the increasing preference of high-definition movies and better graphics cards, consumers have also started getting in on the action by demanding monitors that can handle the high-def movies and higher resolutions for games. Likewise, manufacturers too have aligned themselves with market demands and have been focused on bringing the aforesaid larger panels mainstream. True enough, the 19 to 22-inch monitor space is the most lucrative segment these days judging by their variety and price points.

Today we'll be looking at the ViewSonic VX2235wm-5 22-inch LCD monitor courtesy of the good folks at ViewSonic. We'll be putting this 22-inch beauty through our standard tests, which should give you a good indication of this monitor's capabilities. As part of their X series line, the VX2235wm boasts of a blazing fast 2ms response time and a 4000:1 contrast ratio for displaying even the darkest details, and is an updated model of the previous 5ms response time model (although we've no clue why the new 2ms model is appended with a "-5" prefix).

ViewSonic has claimed that this quick 2ms response timing is due to their ClearMotiv II technology, which uses two core components, Dynamic Structure Technology (DST) and Amplified Impulse Technology (AIT). The former lowers the viscosity of the liquid crystal for faster twisting and to reduce the cell gaps so that electricity can pass through faster. The latter speeds up the liquid crystal response time by using higher voltages. We'll see how true this 2ms panel holds up during testing later.